Monday, June 19, 2006

New Fave Shoes

Today's post is mindless clothing chatter, but maybe it will help if you are in the market for new shoes.

I have only four hard and fast rules for how I dress.

1. It must be modest.

2. It must be feminine.

3. It must be culturally appropriate.

4. My husband has to like it.

I have a couple of other rules that are more fluid. One of these is that it must be frugal, or at least worth the price (meaning that if it's a moderately pricey garment, I'll need to wear it for a long time). The other, nine or ten months out of the year, is that it must be COOL. Our summer lasts from April to October if we are lucky. Sometimes it's more like March to November. Then we have fall during December through February. No joke, our leaves turn at Christmas. Ahhh, life in the deep South.

The cool rule can sometimes present a conflict with #1 above, especially when temps are around 100 and humidity is over 90%. Jeans (and I like jeans) are way too hot, and I'm not comfortable wearing shorts. Light cotton capris are OK, but skirts are my mainstay for much of the year. They solve both the modesty challenge and the need for coolness. Which is fine because I love love love skirts. I'm an incurable girly girl, and skirts are so feminine. Plus, cute, inexpensive skirts seem to be easy to find right now.

The only problem with skirts is walking. Walking shoes just look all wrong with a skirt unless it's super sporty. And it's hard to get up any speed with flip flops or slides. I decided that I'd have to try to find some somewhat attractive athletic sandals, but what I ended up with is way better. At our local sports and sporting goods store, I found a pair of dark brown Skecher sport Mary Janes that look cute and feel awesome, plus they will go with almost anything. At least I will not feel like such a dunce when I walk in the neighborhood. You can see them here. At $40 they are a little pricey, but I can already tell that I'll be wearing these so much that the cost per wear will probably come out at only a few cents. (Actually, they are almost $60 at Zappos, I guess I got an excellent deal...But they would still be worth the price.) Some of the reviews say that the only drawback is that the velcro comes undone sometimes, but I haven't found this to be the case, and I'm pretty active. Maybe it depends on your foot shape or how you walk.

In any case, I was delighted to find a feminine shoe that goes with my Summer ensemble. Fashion experts might contend that I'm commiting some kind of fashion faux pas, but I'm not too worried about that. I kind of make up my own fashion anyway. I highly recommend these shoes if you like pretty *and* practical.

Let me know how they wear. I always love the styles of Skechers but for some reason my husband & I have it stuck in our collective mind that they are "less-than" on the quality side. My life would be alot easier if I would allow myself to consider Skechers as an option.

You know what I wear and I love them, but they're $100. They have gone through 3 summers of everyday wear already, though.

Adorable shoes! I want some for wearing at work!! I normally wear jeans or capris, but sometimes I like shorts and those would work with anything. My problem is my foot is narrow at the heal and wide at the front and every pair of Sketchers I've tried has been too narrow. :( I normally have to stick with New Balance. Nikes and Roeboks don't work for me either... :p

Rebecca, I'll see how they wear. I'm pretty hard on shoes, so I like them to last also.

Urka, my foot is much narrower at the heel than the front as well; so far these are a good fit. I can't wear anything too narrow at the front (forget pointy heels!). I guess it would depend on your exact foot shape.

Creativity

The opposite of consumption is production. It takes far more time and energy to create something than to consume something. It takes a novelist a year to write a book that someone can read in a few days. A cast and crew of thousands spend years to create a film that will be viewed in two hours. Often our only recreational activities are actions of consumption. What an alternative it is, then, to rediscover the wonder and delight of creativity.~Albert Hsu